Mundgod: Journey to Reality of Life...

By IT students of AIMIT, St Aloysius College, Mangalore

Mangalore, Jul 28: Anxious and excited, we just could not wait for the day to come, from the moment the dates for the rural camp was announced. There were two reasons, first one – we got news that the whole class will be divided into groups, and our friends will not be with us rather they will be in other groups. Other reason was for the first time in 2 years of AIMIT (MCA) life, the whole batch would be travelling together for such a distant place. We knew that this would be our lifetime experience.

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”

Our journey for the rural exposure camp to Mundgod began on 3rd June 2013. It was a 5 days camp. We assembled at the main campus of St. Aloysius College, Mangalore. Everyone was gathered in the auditorium and was anxiously waiting for the journey to begin. Prof. Santhosh Rebello, our Dean addressed us. He briefed us saying that the villages that we were visiting are much developed now and he encouraged us to go and explore the place around. Then, Fr. Denzil Lobo, our Rector, prayed to the Lord Almighty for our safe journey. He also told us about his previous visits and told that the people there are very kind and generous and they will welcome us with open-hearts. We were given some necessary instructions and then we boarded the buses. We were accompanied by three of our faculty members- Mrs.Annapoorna Shetty, Mrs.Vanitha and Mr. Ravi Ganna. We started our journey around 9:30 pm. And the other bus left for Nesargi, Belgaum.

Next day early morning we reached LVK, Mundagod around 6 am. After freshening up and having breakfast, Fr. Arun addressed us. The program began by a prayer song followed by lighting of the lamp. Then Fr. Arun briefed us about all the ten villages that we were ready to stay, it provided much information to us, in some eyes I could see fear and some fun. Then the process of grouping started. Uff! That moment all of us had our hearts in our hand, fingers were crossed. We had no clue, who will be in our team. At the end of the session we were grouped into 10 members each and each group was allotted one village. After lunch at around 2:30 all of us started our journey from LVK to the different villages, while departing some had emotional tears running out of their eyes. Some managed to fill their eyes with tears by putting chilly as there was no glycerine. After many emotional acts our bus started to different places inside mundgod - Bharathmill, Byanahalli, Bhadrapura, Salgaon, Malagi, Shirigeri, Nandikatta, Ugginakere, Kalkeri and Honnigoppa .

 Everything was new for us except our classmates and our baggage’s, as we entered the village we were introduced to the villagers, they were gowlis, the gollas and the Siddis (originally from African continent) were the natives. The villagers seemed very friendly and welcoming. But at the same time they were also very curious to know who we were, where we had come from. We had to stay with the villagers in their house. By the time we settled down and looked around the place it was the end of the day and all of us were anxiously waiting to begin our village life next day morning. Each day we discovered new things faced new challenges, as there were no mobile networks, Transport, Hospitals etc. The villages were not hygienic and many houses didn’t have toilets. . Food was another problem, because it’s totally a different taste and the people around were not that rich to provide us a rich food. It would be better to say it was more challenging, than difficult.
 
In some of the villages there was no electricity, scarcity of water and lack of many other facilities, their lifestyle was completely different from ours, really on the first day we struggled to adjust with lack of facilities but after some time we managed to adjust ourselves by filling our souls with villagers love, affection and tradition. It was really surprising to see how they lead a happy life with the very little resources provided to them. The main occupation of people is agriculture, every member in the family works in agriculture field because agriculture is the main source of income, people are economically backward, illiterates, but they have enough soft skill to treat and respect guests who visit their Village, we worked with them in paddy fields sowing seeds and ploughing land using bullock, lead a simple life, they believe that there is no short cut for hard work.

We visited village schools talked to principal, dissucussed about the situation of students, we played with them, conducted learning sessions and taught some lessons. The most amazing thing was how well these small kids below std VIII get ready in a well-organized manner. Clean, neat and well disciplined. We served them breakfast that morning. Even we all had the breakfast there. After that we all decided to go around the village and the fields.

We even visited Siddi Vikasa Kendra which is children’s hostel runs by Jesuit institutions, we met hostel warden sister dhanamma, she gave sufficient information of people of villages how they are manage to survive their life’s without any developments provided by government. We took a small survey. We were very sad to look at the condition of the school there. More than 270 students were there in that school and there were only 4 teachers including the principle. Two to three classes were combined together so that they could handle students. But they never thought how that will affect the future studies. That evening we distributed sweets among the hostel students. We spent some time with them. The best quality these kids had was discipline and well organized behaviour. The people of mungod were not able to send their children for schools because of poverty even they are not able to provide basic necessities for their children, so Jesuit fathers decided to start schools and hostels for children’s and finally helped village children’s including boys and girls to get good education.

The villagers treated us as one of their family members and not as strangers. On the last day we conducted many games for the children, played and danced with them too, and clicked as many pictures as possible as we all knew that the only thing we could take back with us from this camp was only these pictures and memories. During those four days the people in the village got very attached to us and while we were leaving on 8th, they bid us goodbye with broad smile on their faces and their eyes were filled with tears. The main intension of this camp was to make the students to understand the lifestyle of village people who are technologically backward in terms of income, education. In the 5 days of rural camp we really experienced the situations of village environment that every ordinary people face in the society and we learnt about how people manage simplicity of life with the existing resources .We got to learn a lot from them like to save water and utilize it well, save electricity, knowledge sharing with poor students and other resources because we suppose to look into undeveloped villages and their routine lives as a responsibility of human being, also another bigger lesson we need to learn from them is their humanity and the hospitality they provide to the outsiders, they taught us to live a simple life. They proved us, luxury is not essential in living.

We reached back to LVK on 8th morning and all of us were very happy to see the same old faces again after a gap of four days, we had our breakfast and after that they conducted a small evaluation session for us where we shared all our cherishing moments with each other and all the changes we would like to bring in their lifestyle in the future by creating awareness among the parents to educate the children, to provide proper facilities in schools, provide sufficient water and electricity, some villages also have lack of transportation facilities, provide good means of transport to these villages etc. After lunch we all visited the Tibetans colony it was a nice feeling to see all Tibetans dressed alike. We visited their temple and saw nice decorations inside the temple, We could learn their custom and tradition.

In the night after dinner at around 10 pm we started our journey back to Mangalore and all of us had a smile on our faces. It was not just a smile; it was a smile of satisfaction as we were taking a lot of sweet and salt memories with us. One thing to be remembered from this rural camp is that ‘A new experience can be extremely pleasurable, or extremely irritating, or somewhere in between, and you never know until you try it out.’ we would never get such a nice opportunity to mingle, learn and communicate to village people; it was one of unforgettable experience in our life. Finally on behalf of every student I would like to say, this Journey was, Knowledge of practicality and simplicity in our living and I would like to say thank to AIMIT management for organizing such a practical experience camp.

Some of us went to Nesargi in Belgaum district for our rural immersion camp. It was a 10 hrs journey before we reached Christu Nnivas, Nesargi. We got a warm welcome from Fr Thomas Chenakala, Director of Christu Nivas. There we refreshed ourselves and then we proceeded for breakfast. We were introduced to many of the staff members of Jana Jagaran which is rural awareness society directed by Fr Joseph Chenakala we were informed about the change in lifestyle in that village after Jana Jagaran was born. After this session we were served lunch. We were then divided into groups and got back into the bus which took us to our respective villages such as Nesargi, Koladur, Mohre, Deshnur, Kolanatti, Madanbhavi, Hanabaratti and Michelmaradi. The journey was fun, as each of the groups were dropped to their respective houses, with nervous jitters we bid our friends good bye with a promise to meet them again soon.

As we got down from the bus the family members were there to welcome us with broad smiles on their faces. As Fr. Denzil Lobo and dean had mentioned, the families were very friendly and open hearted. Some of us were welcomed with a group of excited school kids, some with very sweet tea, some with Parle-G biscuits, and so on. And yet for some, as they stepped into the homes, were welcomed by buffaloes, goats and sheep. Most of them earned their living as farmers growing crops such as maize, wheat, chilly, banana and mango - plantations and others were government teachers and some served Indian military too. Most of the families owned cattle and some of them had them in their homes too. Rotti’s made of corn flour and vegetables were their main course for lunch and dinner. Some of us felt the food was spicy and for some salty. Most of the women were part of a social group called Shramik Abhivrudhi Sangh (SAS), popularly known as Jana Jagaran which helped the women in the village in all ways for instance providing loans and basic education related to women. Recently the Jana Jagaran society has come forward to provide an alternate option of fuel such as gobar- gas and bio-gas.

To describe the beauty of the village, it was evergreen with hills all around and fields stretched as far as our eyes could sea, lakes, falls, caves etc. People used bullock carts to travel as well as transfer goods. Public busses were also available but the people over there preferred walking long distances.

Our daily routine began early morning by filling water for the household chores. The rest of the day was spent visiting neighbouring houses, and schools where we thought a few rhymes and songs and also distributed sweets as a token of love .We also spent our time helping them in field work, like toiling the soil, sowing seeds, etc. Some even enjoyed the fishing and hunting experience. It was a satisfying experience overall. Some of us were taught the traditional way of cooking rotties, and some enjoyed cooking for them some of the dishes they knew. The neighbours were so generous they invited us for tea lunch and dinner as well. The evening was spent exploring the scenic beauty of the village. On our return we were patiently awaited by the family members for dinner which was served not before a cup of sweet tea.

The day had come to bid farewell to the people who had almost become like our family. Some faces were overwhelmed with emotions and some shed tears. The Families requested us to continue to be in contact with them. As the bus came to pick us up from the village the family along with neighbours gathered to bless us and say goodbye. Our last halt was to Christu Nivas where we shared our experiences before taking off to Mangalore .Many lessons were learned, but the one which stood out was that “richness should be of heart and not the material world”.